Motivation for Mission

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 114

Scripture Reading: Joshua 1:7-9

Joshua 1:7–9 ESV

Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Sermon

Good Morning Church! I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

This morning is part 2 of three on persecution, and it, in some way why persecution is no big deal, or we should say why we do not balk in the face of persecution. it is for us because there is something that pushes harder than a fear of persecution might.

SO lets just dive in today, our passage is Matthew 10:26-33

Matthew 10:26–33 ESV

“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Lets PRAY

PRAY

For those of you who use the “correct” (and yes that is a joke) but for those of you who use the “correct” version of the Bible, the ESV you will notice a heading over the section of Scripture that we just read. it says: “HAVE NO FEAR”. and while i do usually love and agree with the translation and editorial decisions of the people who translated the ESV bible, i strongly disagree with this heading. I do not think that the correct way to label this section. Something that would be better, in my humble estimation would be something like “have the correct fear” or have a right fear or have a holy fear. something like that. To use a double negative really quickly… We are defiantly not told to not fear in this section. Though fear defiantly is the central thought or Idea.

So usually in sermons you are supposed to (again “supposed to”) have three points them a hymn song or poem that you read from at the end, but you all know me and how I don’t always do what we are “supposed to do”. So we are not going to have that today, we will instead have one main thought with (coincidentally) three thoughts that all stem from that 1 theme. And the fear summarizes in some way.

The Greek word for fear, it is one that might sound familiar to you, it is Phobos. and it appears four times in what we just read. Verse 26 “So have no fear of them” verse 28 “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” verse 28 again, and the point I would argue of this whole passage “Fear him who can destroy the body and the soul in hell” and finally verse 31 “fear not therefore.”

The purpose, then, I would argue, of this passage is to give us our motivation for mission. I was researching this week. I was a little bit bored and researched “different types of phobias. and it turns our that according to psychologists there are five different types of categories of phobias that one might have. and in each category there are vast numbers of clinically diagnose-able phobias.

you start with what are called the Animal Type (e.g. dogs, snakes, or spiders)

the next are Natural Environment Type (e.g., heights, storms, water)

then you have Blood-Injection-Injury Type (e.g. fear of seeing blood, receiving a blood test or shot, watching television shows that display medical procedures)

fourth is the Situational Type (e.g., airplanes, elevators, driving, enclosed places)

But then the fith and final type is super cheating if you ask me you have Other Types (e.g., phobic avoidance of situations that may lead to choking, vomiting, or contracting an illness; in children, avoidance of loud sounds like balloons popping or costumed characters like clowns)

Now if we are talking about that type of phobia, then fear not is good advice, and I would encourage you: fear not! but my real encouragement to you today, is that if we are going to classify a phobia, and I forgot to mention this note, the above things, you can’t say you have a true phobia, and again this is from the diagnostic manual, to truly be a phobia it must be to such a degree that it impacts your day to day life. And my message to you is that there should be a fear that we should have that SHOULD impact our day to day lives. It is a fear that is good and right and that we should strive to foster in our lives, and so here it is, a fear of God.

Our Motivation is to FEAR GOD

Our motivation to proclaim the gospel is a holy and reverent fear of God and that fear of God then saturates and motivates every single thing that we do. Jesus says, right here in the middle in what I would argue is sort of the mission statement for this whole section. verse 28

Matthew 10:28 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

As we go out and face the world, proclaiming the gospel, that is the central thing we are doing, remember, this is the discourse on missions, and Jesus wants this thought to ring in our head. DO NOT FEAR MEN, that is the do not fear part. do not fear the one that can only harm the body instead and here is why “fear not” isn’t quite good enough INSTEAD fear the Lord of heaven and earth who has the power and authority to destroy your body and soul in hell.

These are strong words and terrifying words. they should stir within us a holy and righteous fear and terror. For God is great and powerful. We all know sort of fundamentally that there are different levels to fear, and some fears conquer others. By way of example, Desiree will often tell this story.

One day Desiree was being a rebellious high school student and (as hard as this is to believe) she had stayed out past curfew one night, and her mom was tried of it. and so her mom decided the best way to discipline her and teach her a lesson would be to make Desiree get in the car and they drove around until they found a police officer. and then, Desiree mom took Desiree in front of the police officer to question her and in some sense put the fear of God into her. But this is where the story is such a great illustration. An improper view of the authorities and power over the life of Desiree might make you think that the police officer is the scary one. But Desiree, who knows better often says, she would much rather face whatever consequence and thing that the police could trow out than face the wrath of her mom.

so here is the mothers day portion of this sermon, mothers, you have a power and authority over the lives of your children, do not be afraid of wielding it. But the point here is that that when we truly understand the nature of power, and specifically when we truly understand that God is the sovereign lord of heaven and earth ad all powerful, it makes the persecution of the world fall into perspective, because yeah, its bad, literally Desiree was brought before the authorities like we talked about last week. But she knew that it was her mom who’s wrath that she should avoid.

So what jesus is saying is: what are you more scared of: People? what s the worst that they could do? well we talked about it last week. they could drag you in front of the Sanhedrin and have you flogged ad beaten. they could drag you in front of kings and governors to face the wrath of man made government. or even, brother could turn against brother, father against son and child against parent and you could be put to death. Ok. but that is ALL they can do. They can’t touch your soul. God on the other hand, the one who made you, created you and has all power and authority over you and really over all things, he is much more, and I do not mean this in a trite way he is terrifying his power is so much higher. so why do we fear men? Fear God!

and when we fear God we are motivated and moved to follow his commands. He said Go! so GO! he said preach! so preach! he said share so share! he said be a light so you go be a light! because we understand that the weight and worth and power of the commands that come from God are of far more powerful stock, far greater authority than anything that the world might put up against us.

SO the central theme that s running through this passage is not, i would argue HAVE NO FEAR. but instead the central fear that runs though this is to have the right fear: FEAR GOD.

We have to make sure that before we move on we have the right idea in our minds. To fear God is not a cowering and an aversion to God. it does not lock us up so that we freeze up ad can do nothing. instead it is a holy and reverent fear. It is the same type of fear that would cause Proverbs 1:7

Proverbs 1:7 ESV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

It is the same sort of fear that would cause the prophet Isaiah, as he is ushered into the throne room of God, that as he is drawn there and being called by God to be his prophet it is the fear that causes him to realize the depth and weight of his sin so he says: “woe is me for i am an unclean man from unclean people with unclean lips who is hopeless in front of a holy God”. It is THAT sort of fear.. It is the sort of fear that would stir up in you when you, like moses hear and understand that no one can see God and live and yet he allows us glimpses at his glory. It is a humbling and humble reverent holy fear that realizes that God is God and we are not. He is the creator and we are the creature. It is a sot of holy fear wherein we realize that eve our best words are unable to describe God in his power and might. His strength, majesty, justice, wrath, glory, might, his grace his mercy his kindness, though we use these words even they are not enough because God is infinitely high above even the best words of his creatures. It is the sort of fear that burns in our hearts and we realize that I MUST DO AS THIS GOD COMMANDS!

So...

SO today I am not encouraging you to have no fear, I am encouraging you to have no fear other than God. And when we do so then we can go on mission. Here is where we can find a few more points as we work through this passage, but I want us to remember that this first one is key. Fear god not man.

Then the SO… and if we are fearing God properly, if we are listening to his words and his commands, then you will SHINE BRIGHT

SHINE BRIGHT

Shine bright.

Matthew 10:26–27 ESV

“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

Verse 26 is a very interesting verse, many people reading into this a sort of end time judgmental language which I will admit fits in the scope of other things Jesus has been saying in this discourse. SO probably he is saying in some sense: don’t fear them, because the things that they say about you the ways that they feel bout you, the things you are struggling with they will be revealed. God knows and sees all. the sovereign lord of heaven and earth will reveal the truth in his good time. SO do not fear the,m, instead trust the sovereign Lord. there is no, vileness that they could perpetrate against you that God will not see and God will not judge. it will all be revealed. There is nothing that they can do to you that they can hide, that the sovereign lord, who we fear more, will not hold them accountable for.

SO shine brightly! what jesus tells us in the dark, those things he reveals to us, bring them to the light and shine with your words and with your life brightly to the dark world around you. What you hear whispered proclaim it from the housetops. what the Spirit reveals to you in your hear and your soul is NOT JUST FOR YOU, you have a responsibility to share it.

When i was a youth pastor I would always ask the following question to my Kids: Why were you saved? and they might answer: Because he loves me. OK. Well why does he love you? well it is because he created me. OK. well why did he create you? well because he wanted to. OK well why did he want to, and here is the pay off, he did it for his glory. and this then is the great mystery. Why would God use someone like you and mean to shine his glory brighter. I do not know but as question one of Westminster shorter catechism asks: what is the chief end of man? to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

So why are you saved? to spread his glory, but why are you sanctified? for his glory, why does he revel things to you so that you can shine brighter with his glory! it is what you were made to do! In him we live and move and have our being. Ever word we say every thing we do shine with the glory of God. As so when he teaches us things, as we study and read scripture and our eyes are opened to who he is and what he is doing proclaim it. Shout it from the housetops. DO not keep secret what God is doing in your life. Shine brightly. it does not matter what people think about you. They might write you off as some sort of holy rolling weirdo. that fine. They might come against you. say things like: Who is this person, he claims that he can speak for God. well no, I am just sharing with you what he told me.

We must shine brightly to the broken lost and dark world around us. Bring the light, shout from the housetops be a light! Because God, whom we have a holy and righteous fear of has commanded us to do this. SO I will not fear them… even the them that may offer me up to death. instead I fear God

Similarly, part of fearing God is trusting his care.

TRUST HIS CARE

It is realizing that the sovereign God who will do as HE wills and whims, my job is to follow his commands and trust him to take care of the rest. in Matthew 10:28

Matthew 10:28 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

and then it seems like, I mean that is rather powerful judgement and Wrath language. Lets be honest, It doesn't get more wrathful and powerful than “Destroys body and soul in hell”. That is peak wrath and judgement and then Jesu starts talking about some birds. Sparrows in fact. and he opens with the worthlessness f sparrows. verse 29: are not two sparrows sold for a penny?”

Sparrows are, it turns out not worth a penny. the most insignificant measure of money we have, I mean, what is a penny worth? pretty much nothing, and two sparrows are sold for one penny. But yet, not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. Not one sparrow will find itself falling from the sky without God knowing. Jesus continues: then note this. even the hairs on your head are ALL numbered.

and what Jesus is saying here is actually better than we usually take this to mean. It is not that he just knows the NUMBER of hairs. but the emphasis here is more that each and every hair has a number. And so while you will loose countless to us numbers of hair, and while some of us loose more than others, some grow it back, some do not. but each hair on your head is numbered. And so when you loose hairs it is not just that he knows update the total on David from 1,265 to 1,263 (which would be impressive) but he knows that I have lost hair number 534, 627 and 1,183. When these hairs fall from our head that even we are unaware of, it is left on your pillow, stuck in your hat, fallen off and on your shoulder and then taken by the wind, we are unaware, but the sovereign Lord of heaven knows this all. He knows everything about you. And so, if the worthless sparrow cannot fall to the ground, and you, he knows so well that the hairs on you head are numbered… here’s the point

I think jesus is being a little sarcastic. fear not, therefore… you are of more vale than MANY sparrows.

Oh, that's good to know. many sparrows, is that like seven. If there are seven sparrows and I am worth more than them then I am worth at least a nickel! This is hyperbolic language form jesus it is not that we are worth “many” sparrows because we have infinite weight and value for we are made in his image. So we trust in him and his care. I want to end this section reading from a commentary. this is what Jerome, I mentioned him a few weeks ago, he lived around the year 400 and had seen persecution and lived these things in ways that we have not, and this is what he said about this passage, and think it is important for us to hear what he says. Because there is a weight in trusting his care. It is not just trusting his care because we think that means everything will be great. It is instead trusting his care because he is sovereign and he is God. This is what he writes

The Lords Words are rooted in each other. what is said later depends on what precedes. Prudent reader, always beware of a superstitious interpretation. Do not accommodate the Scriptures to your meaning, but link your meaning to the Scriptures and understand what follows. Above he had said: “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” Now he speaks of the consequence of these words: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them falls to the ground without your father.” Thus the meaning is:

And this is what we have to catch, here what Jerome says is the thought and I would agree with him wholeheartedly:

This the meaning is this: If common and insignificant animals do not die apart from their creator, God, and there is a providence in all things, and among these things the things that are going to perish do not perish without the will of God, then you who are eternal should not fear that you will live without the providence of God.

What Jerome is saying is: the sparrow doesn’t fall, it doesn't die apart form Sovereign will and plan and that must be a part of what he wills and has declared. Now “prudent reader” as he has called us, as we contemplate what has been said here, part of trusting in his care is understanding that his care might cost me my life, but it will only cost me this physical life and what I will gain in return is an infinitely eternal more beautiful and wonderful life. So if we look to God and say yes, his in control of all the affairs of things that happen on earth. even the sparrow that falls from the sky, there is some weight to the thought that what jesus has in mind is not some sparrow just falling but instead being snared, or even taken out of the sky by like a hawk or something. so the full picture is if some sparrow is not ripped from the sky by a hawk without God being aware of it. how much more is he aware when the persecutor comes and kills the believer.

And the question, if may channel the book of Isaiah for just a second is: WILL YOU TRUST GOD? If he calls us to that ultimate great and terrible sacrifice will you trust him? It is not just that we trust his care to bring us the “good” things are we define good things, we trust his care in bringing us all things knowing that he works for our good in ALL things. For he is God. and if he demands my life will I give it?

Knowing this, that he may demand my life, more to the point, as the hymn the old rugged cross states he DOES demand my life my heart and my all. Knowing that he has called me to shine bright, he has not asked me if I am OK with the cost, he said do it, pay it trust me while shining bright and so we end with an affirmation, and a call to STAND FIRM

STAND FIRM

Verse 32 and 33, in my own personal life I have seen weaponized against me. SO I want to let us all off the hook before I put us on a worse hook, just a fair warning.

SO to get some of us off the hook. These verses do not mean: I am going to give an altar call right now and anyone who wants to come now respond to jesus here at this altar and respond in this PUBLIC altar call because jesus said “whoever acknowledges me in front of man” which in the Greek here means responds to this altar call I will acknowledge in front of man and who ever denies me in front of man, which again, in the Greek, means does not have the guts to come up right here and right now, Jesus will deny before the father. That is not even close to what jesus is saying. Verse 32 and 33 have i am confident in saying NOTHING to do with altar calls. SO if you have ever felt the weight and guilt of not responding to an altar call because of these verse you are off the hook, that is not what these verses are talking about. The bad news that I have for you today is that What they are talking about is much much worse.

If I may go on a bit of a tirade here for a second. This is why it is so important to me that we do not just rip verses out of context to make them fit with what we want. We often, in trying to do something praiseworthy and good (getting people to make a public profession of faith is a good thing) but in trying to do something good we take the words of God and give them a weaker meaning. My favorite example, and I think it is instructive here, is that in Matthew 18 jesus says: wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am too. One day in the not too distant future we will be doing a sermon on that portion of scripture. But the short version is that Jesus is talking about church discipline. He is not talking about, what I would wager is the only time you have heard that verse quoted, which is a prayer meeting. And when we use that verse to describe a [prayer meeting lest understand what we are saying. Then Do I need two or three for jesus to be a part of my prayers? we all know that that is false. Instead I would say that when w have just a few people show up lets go with the stronger promises of Jesus like the fact that he will be closer than a brother, that he is our intercessor who sits at the right hand of the father making intercession for us, that the spirit is within in us, no matter the number and the prayers of a righteous man availeth much. Lets go with those strong promises and let the promise of “where two or three” stand on its strong legs as a promise that where the church Goes jesus leads and will be there.

Which leads me to why this is much much worse. Because you do not get to say: well I acknowledged Jesus at an altar call that one time, so I am good, he will acknowledge me before God, Which is the horrible implication of using this verse at an altar call. instead he is saying that the life of the believe is the life marked by constant and perpetual being identified in Christ. Truly, what Jesus is saying is as you live out this call i have given you, as you do not fear them and bring to light and brig to them what was given u sin darkness, as we trust God in his sovereign hand knowing he cares for the sparrows he will care for me, he has a plan for the sparrows he has a plan for me. In doing that my life, my entire being all that is me and all that is within me must stand firm.

Don’t miss this, This message is to those that have already responded, his disciples that are going on mission, he is telling Them that when you are thrown before the courts, when brought before the governors, when handed over by brother or father or family member, as you do those things, STAND FIRM. I already read from Jerome, writing in around 400, lets fast word 1400 years and read from my most favorite of all preachers Charles H Spurgeon.

Because divine providence rules over all

That is what Jerome was talking about

Because divine providence rules over all, the destiny of believers is secure beyond fear of harm, and they must not shrink from the boldest avowal of their faith because of anxiety to preserve their lives. Our business is to confess Christ before men. In him the truth we acknowledge begins, centers and ends. Our confession of faith is a confession of Christ: he is our theology, he is our Word, he is our God. What a joy to confess him now! What a reward to be confessed by him hereafter in the glory-world! It will be a high offence against the great God, whom Jesus calls twice “my Father in heaven” , if we fail to confess his son on earth.

SO here is the point, says Spurgeon, he says, this is not an altar call thing, he says this is a… well here’s his words:

What a grave warning this is for the cowardly believer!

He continues:

Can a non-confessing faith save? To live and die without confessing Christ before men is to run an awful risk. Actually to recant and give up Chrsit must be a dreadful crime, and the penalty is fearful to contemplate. Disowned by Jesus before his Father who is in heaven! What hell can be worse?

And so knowing that this is a challenge to us, to live a life of firm standing, of following him, headlong into whatever he may call us to Spurgeon ends with a prayer, I would like to end with the time one.

Lord, let me never blush to own thee in all companies! Work in me a bold spirit by thy Holy Spirit. Let me confess thy truth whatever the spirit of the age may be, uphold thy church when she is most despised, obey they precepts when they cost most dear, and glory in thy name when it is most reproached.

Amen